I don't think I've posted about The Follower, Jason Starr's almost
latest. I was lucky enough to receive a signed copy from him, but that
did not prejudice me in favour--I've been predisposed to like anything
he's written ever since the first one I read about five years ago. Once
again, he gives us an inside look at a seriously deluded character, a
guy stalking a girl he knew from high school. Some chapters are from her
point of view, and just as convincing. It's got a trademark Starr
ending--terrible, in the best way.

I also read The Max, the third in the Starr-Bruen trilogy about crazy
businessman Max Fisher and looking-out-for-number one Angela Petrakos.
Max is doing time in Attica and Angela is in Greece, but don't worry,
their stories converge. In this picaresque tale of murder and greed,
Angela gets taken for a ride by a con man and the delusional Max has all
the tough guys in prison at his beck and call. Not your nitty-gritty
realism. The writing is lean and funny and the whole thing keeps running
at a breakneck pace until the explosive ending. Could this be a trilogy
in four parts? Minor quibble: It really bothered me that the British
scammer, supposedly an Oxbridge man, used "Lordy" as his favourite
expression. That just didn't ring true.

I read The Wrong Kind of Blood, by Declan Hughes, which was mentioned
here recently, by Brian T, I think. I liked it, but it took me a few
weeks to get to the point where I didn't want to put it down--quite
unusual for me. Maybe it was because real estate deals are not one of my
interests. Ed Loy, who's been living in LA for years, returns home to
Dublin for his mother's funeral. An old friend asks him to look for her
missing husband, and other bodies old and new are discovered. Most of
the key characters are involved one way or another in a golf course
development and, rather in the tradition of Ross Macdonald, the threads
of their stories go back to the housing estate where they grew up.
Hughes reveals Loy's background and character gradually. I like his
writing style and Loy very much. This is the first of three, possibly
four so far in the Ed Loy series.

Moving away from Ireland, I picked up The Russian Passenger, by GŁnter
Ohnemus (trans. by John Brownjohn). It's from Bitter Lemon, which really
seems to have a great list. I'd never heard of this author or title, but
I liked it a lot. It's narrated by a Munich taxi driver (Harry) who
picks up a Russian woman (Sonia) who wants to go to the airport. She's
kind of nervous and seems to be afraid of being followed. She eventually
tells him that she's making her escape from her mafioso husband. Instead
of taking Sonia to the airport, Harry says he'll drive her to
Luxembourg, where she has money in the bank. From then on, you know he's
in the soup with her. Within hours he's had to kill someone. Then
they're both on the run from one country to another. Along the way, they
rely on Harry's old friends to help them, and they all come through.
It's very interesting from a relationship point of view. Harry's
separated from his wife and his daughter is dead. What is the connection
between those two facts? What is the relationship now between Harry and
his exwife and why? Some questions remain fuzzy but one thing that is
certain is that old ties can bind tight--and that can mean salvation.
This one was a real page-turner. The tone is very engaging and the
English reads beautifully. I'd definitely read more by Ohnemus if I
could get it. Oh, and the ending is definitely noir in my opinion.

Now to the U.S.A. and Daniel Woodrell's Give Us a Kiss, subtitled A
Country Noir. People on this list have been talking about this book for
years, most recently without much enthusiasm, but formerly with a lot. I
thought it was a great read. It moves right along and the narrator's
language is a comfortable mix of "hillbilly" (his word) and literary.
The narrator's background seems to match Woodrell's: born in the Ozarks,
English degree, Iowa Writers' Workshop. The crime plot is obviously
fictional. It's got a little bit in common with Chapter and Verse or The
Hook, in that one of the themes is the lengths writers can go to in
pursuing commercial success. The narrator feels it depends on his
getting a "hook." It's humorous and the characters, although not
terribly deep, are not just stereotypes. Overall, though, I wouldn't say
it was noir. The ending is ironic, perhaps, but much more positive than
you might guess. A lot of things that could go wrong don't.
Incidentally, there is a scene near the beginning where our hero's
father makes him go noodling in a creek. Noodling is catching fish
(catfish, mainly) with your bare hands by getting in the water and
feeling around in holes under the bank. (Something to do with being
successful without a hook?) It's a funny scene, especially when the
property owners call the police and he is almost arrested, naked and
dripping wet. Strangely enough, about a week after that, I stumbled on a
TV program devoted to--you guessed it--noodling competitions, "Okie
noodling" to be precise.